Without Mr Khan.........

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

What might have happened to our club and where could we be now ?
It could have been so much worse.

MOF was looking to sell and we were on the decline.
Enter on to the stage some foreign dickhead.

Wrong.
Enter on to the stage a careful and calculated businessman who had dipped his toe into
to a Northern Florida sports deal with a cunning plan of..........long term sustainability.......ouch
Does this mean he won't 'splash the cash'  ?
Not necessarily, he's invested a lot on the training centre, Riverside, squad and picked the manager
we all wanted.
Then a bit of a blip, however I'm sure he will tweak this successfully.
His son is learning although a slight media cock up today by reporting the Sess thing in the Standard
and not to us lot, is worrying.

Let's see what happens.
Give them time.

Jaguars took 10 years, a win against Pittsburg will see them into the 'semi-finals' of NFL thingy

[Snibbo]

The anti-Khan venom, especially on TIFF, is out of all proportion IMHO.

[e4b]

Good post Rodger,I agree with you i think Mr Khan will see us right in the end.However it might take a bit longer than some on here might want.An instant fix is not always the best one.Sure he has made mistakes who hasn't? but he is trying to rectify them whilst still sticking to his plan and not putting the club in financial danger.

[MJG]

I can hear the blood boiling and the steam coming out of certain posters ears  reading this.

[hovewhite]

Patience is sometimes a difficult thing guys.

[Marcel_Gecov]

What might have happened to our club and where could we be now ?
It could have been so much worse.

MOF was looking to sell and we were on the decline.
Enter on to the stage some foreign dickhead.

Wrong.
Enter on to the stage a careful and calculated businessman who had dipped his toe into
to a Northern Florida sports deal with a cunning plan of..........long term sustainability.......ouch
Does this mean he won't 'splash the cash'  ?
Not necessarily, he's invested a lot on the training centre, Riverside, squad and picked the manager
we all wanted.
Then a bit of a blip, however I'm sure he will tweak this successfully.
His son is learning although a slight media cock up today by reporting the Sess thing in the Standard
and not to us lot, is worrying.

Let's see what happens.
Give them time.

Jaguars took 10 years, a win against Pittsburg will see them into the 'semi-finals' of NFL thingy

Why is reporting Sess in the Standard a cockup? When it's good news I could barely give a fig where I find the info.

[VicHalomsLovechild]

Good and timely post.

[mrmicawbers]

It's taking time and longer than most of us fans want I'm sure.My thoughts are that after making some rookie mistakes at the beginning of his tenure our Chairman is starting to turn things round.When you think about what he inherited ie an ageing team that had not been invested in at the end of MàFs Reign there was plenty to be attended to.He has invested heavily in the training ground and the Academy and this is now paying dividends.We have a squad were the average age is much lower and has a policy in place to keep it like that and if someone leaves us then we have a chance of recouping some money.Its still only talk but the Riverside seems to be moving ahead and should it do so,again an upgrade in the Clubs infrastructure which will have long term benefits.So there seems to be a Plan in place but the plan is going to take time and patience on our part.I personally prefer this option than to risk throwing money at it and to end up like QPR and the state they find themselves in.

[SG]

He has had 5 years to date and in that time he has taken us from a mid table Premiership team to a mid table Championship team. He and his son continue to make fundamental mistakes, having made numerous others during this period, in the running of the club that suggest to me at least that restoring our position in the Premiership is but a distant dream/fantasy. He has not invested yet in the Riverside to any great extent. Lots of words and peripheral actions but nothing meaningful yet and anything that may materialise is at least 3/4 years away. He may have secured the manager we wanted but he has then failed to support him so it is a question as to how long this manager will remain under this hierarchy. Regrettably we have no option to be patient as none of us have £150 + million to buy him out.
Lots of positive unfulfilled PR bull and not a lot of actions. His stewardship has been an unmitigated and ongoing disaster in my book but I will continue to be patient and hope for an upturn in our fortunes.

[toshes mate]

I can hear the blood boiling and the steam coming out of certain posters ears  reading this.

No blood boiling here, or steam coming from ears.  Just another OP expressing their POV without any evidence or convincing expressions of what could have been.  I prefer Roger when he is in comedic mood and cheerfully expected a memorable punchline.  Disappointed not to find one.  Khan is the owner and he is doing this his way.  It's his money and his show and he obviously prefers farce and computer gimmicks to serious drama and hard working performers.  Is he a good driver?  I guess trading in bumpers makes him dream of ever more crashes and ever more profit.  But the punchline that will stick in my mind is how he forgot to use his tape measure and read up English planning protocols when eyeing Craven Cottage as a venue for the badly misnamed football they play in the US.  Is he serious about English football?  Well he still has a lot to do to convince me. 

 

[Facts Not Fiction]

We were exceeding ourselves being in the PL for that length of time. For small clubs like us, that length of consistency doesn't occur very often.

Its going to take time to go back up, as shown with Newcastle, spending £££ in the Championship doesn't mean that the squad will be PL capable after promotion.

I'm sure we'll go back up eventually, and hopefully that's when we will see the best of Khans wealthy power, whilst not tied down under FFP.

[The Old Count]

It's the mistakes and mismanagement that grate.  The so obvious lack of good council from experienced footbal people, the poor management choices when Jol went, the Kline saga and the lack of creative and expansive solutions to FFP amongst many other issues.
I believe that Mr Khan senior and Mr Khan junior have the club's best interests at heart (2nd of course to their own interests) and they want things to improve.  Whether they are able to effect those improvements before they lose interest is another matter.

[David I]

You cant get away from the fact that Khan took over ownership of a Premier league side raking in good tv income and the following two seasons skirted with relegation out of the ECL.....
Invested circa £12 million in an injured striker when we needed goals
Responsible for the hiring of one of the worst (if not the worst) manager in Fulham's history - McGath!

I am struggling to see the business sense in maintaining gates of around 17k in the ECL rather than 25K in the prem with ridiculous levels of tv revenue and increased game prices.....The clubs value and reputation has plummeted.

[Southcoastffc]

The Khans (plural) biggest single, and ongoiing, mistake is lack of proper communication with supporters.

[Facts Not Fiction]

You cant get away from the fact that Khan took over ownership of a Premier league side raking in good tv income and the following two seasons skirted with relegation out of the ECL.....
Invested circa £12 million in an injured striker when we needed goals
Responsible for the hiring of one of the worst (if not the worst) manager in Fulham's history - McGath!

I am struggling to see the business sense in maintaining gates of around 17k in the ECL rather than 25K in the prem with ridiculous levels of tv revenue and increased game prices.....The clubs value and reputation has plummeted.

If you can't see the logic in hiring Magath, then you didn't understand the situation we were in.

[JoelH5]

Why is it a cockup reporting it in the Standard? It's the complete opposite. All Fulham fans will see it anyway but let's be honest, who is the target audience for Fulham? Predominately middle class families, city workers etc who are the same demographic who read the Standard. The article reaches consumers who aren't currently Fulham fans, but in the target audience, and could create some interest with them, potentially growing our fan base.

Furthermore, by giving the Standard an exclusive, it builds a relationship between that outlet and Fulham which helps to further strengthen activities like this in the future.

It's great marketing and one of the only decent things the blokes done!

[Twig]

I am ambivalent towards the Khans at the moment. So not in the anti Khan camp but Roger, what an error strewn OP.  Khan has not invested in the squad, his dealings to date roughly break even and in addition he has cut the player wage bill and one of his first actions was a round of redundancies cutting the non playing staff.  Neither has he invested in the Riverside, I go there every fortnight and trust me it hasn't changed.

Finally Roger you could equally imagine a successor to MAF who made better decisions and invested more heavily in the squad thus keeping us in the prem (or at the very least returning us more rapidly).  That scenario is just as likely as your doomsday version.

[HV71]

I agree with you Roger - certainly in terms of us needing to be patient . He has invested and is trying to do the right thing ( particularly in terms of the Academy and stadium development). What worries me is the decision making process in terms of footballing matters. For a successful businessman to repeatedly get the transfer policy wrong is nothing short of bizarre. He has 'gambled' millions on the advice of people not apparently qualified  to make them. In his day to day dealings would he make at an accountant head of HR or a marketing manager as FD ? I doubt it somehow. Removing all the previous directors was a huge error - buying a business for millions and one which you have little knowledge of requires a level of continuity that he simply could not provide. Mark Collins a true Fulham fan should never have left.
I have no real problem with his commitment as a Chairman ( long gone are the days when they tended to be fans ) but more with his decision making for someone who should surely be more astute than

[David I]

You cant get away from the fact that Khan took over ownership of a Premier league side raking in good tv income and the following two seasons skirted with relegation out of the ECL.....
Invested circa £12 million in an injured striker when we needed goals
Responsible for the hiring of one of the worst (if not the worst) manager in Fulham's history - McGath!

I am struggling to see the business sense in maintaining gates of around 17k in the ECL rather than 25K in the prem with ridiculous levels of tv revenue and increased game prices.....The clubs value and reputation has plummeted.

If you can't see the logic in hiring Magath, then you didn't understand the situation we were in.

3 managers in one season....defies any logic!

[toshes mate]

I agree with you Roger - certainly in terms of us needing to be patient . 

Patience is also a card game which has a difficulty level only set by the manner in which the cards fall after being shuffled.  Its analogy to football is similar.  Rich person or consortium buy club, shuffle the deck,  deal the cards and play the game.  The trick is not just knowing when you are beat it is in sussing out the bad move you made that lead you up a blind alley.  In the Khans' case they do not learn from mistakes and repeatedly do the wrong things and a large part of that is because they are absent from huge stretches of the play.  They are distracted by bigger things at home and I do not, for one minute, blame them for that.  But as an advocate of better things for Fulham as in achieving this Club's potential to perform I don't see an owner who cares enough to be bothered to sort out issues here before he returns home each time.   He is like an absentee landlord who doesn't give a damn about maintenance issues or disrepair as long as the building is still standing when he comes along in marine pomp and ceremony.  His residents are arbitrary figures who will come and go without him actually knowing who they are and why they have a loving affiliation with FFC.  He may on occasion mix with the the more affluent occupants of the Riverside but what of the guys in the cheapest seats?  Whatever he does isn't done through love and affection, in my honest and humble opinion, because he is simply going through the motions.